House Republicans ponder Democrats’ claim of Nixon mandate

Democrats say Governor-elect Jay Nixon has a mandate from Missourians after winning big last week. Republicans in the House might disagree a bit.

Everyone has had time to review the numbers from the election.

House Speaker-elect Ron Richard (R-Joplin) certainly understands that Democrat Jay Nixon won big over Republican Kenny Hulshof, but also understands Republicans lost only three seats in the House and retain 89 seats in the 163-seat chamber.

“The governor was elected by 60%. We have 89 back, because we made eligibility to Medicaid an important topic,” says Richard, “We’ll have a discussion about that (Medicaid).”

The biggest tussle between Nixon and House Republicans will come over Medicaid. Nixon has vowed to restore the cuts Republicans made in 2005. Richard and Budget Committee Chairman Allen Icet (R-Wildwood) say they’re willing to discuss the issue.

“I certainly try to work with the minority party on areas we can agree and there obviously will be areas in which we disagree which is not surprising,” says Icet, “I am willing to sit down and discuss the issues, but the bottom line is that we have to have a balanced budget.”

Icet says he’s not sure about Nixon’s insistence that it would take only $265 million dollars to restore the Medicaid cuts. He calculates it would take more in the range of $325-to-350 million.